My Perfect Prom Night

 Ever since I started high school my senior year was something I always looked forward to. More specifically though, Prom. Now that time has passed, that day was finally here. Everyone's dream was to have a perfect experience and from the looks of every high school movie I watched, I thought mine was going to be the same. 

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It was a beautiful Saturday morning, the birds were singing, the sun was shining, and I woke up super energetic. I thought to myself, "Nothing could possibly go wrong." With a blink of an eye, my morning turned into the afternoon and it was time to leave for prom. I texted the person that was going to give me a ride, Antony, and told him I was ready to go. He quickly responded back and told me he was on his way. As I was patiently waiting for his arrival my palms wouldn’t stop sweating, my heart was pounding, and I felt like I was going to faint. When he got to my house he surprised me with the prettiest multicolored flowers ever. They smelt amazing and complimented my dark green dress.

It was all going perfectly. My parents then turned into paparazzi and treated me and Antony like celebrities. “Smile!” “Say cheese!” “Aww, look at them.” Once they were done with pictures my mother asked me what time I was going to come back home. I looked at her, laughed, and answered, "Don't wait for me to get back! Today's the only day I can stay out late and not get in trouble. I'll be back by 3 am." 

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I didn’t have a worry in the world. That is until I left my house. My parents were waving goodbye to me and they slowly got smaller and smaller as Antony drove farther away. When I could no longer see them, my stomach dropped. I started to overthink about all the things that could go wrong tonight. The nervousness took over my mind. I played music to see if I could relax, but that didn't seem to work. Every song blended into each other and didn’t help. Luckily though these feelings were set aside after we ate at Sakura Hibachi Steakhouse. The scent and deliciousness of the hibachi steak and rice replaced those imperfect thoughts of my prom night. The clock was getting closer to 8 pm and we headed to the event hall, my mind relaxed now. 

Right as we arrived we were greeted by teachers, who were standing outside, that asked us for our tickets. We could hear the remixed songs blasting from inside, and once we opened the door, we knew it was time to go. Upon entering the event room, we saw that there were many students there, yet the ambiance seemed dull. The music was so loud and terrible that I shivered in embarrassment. I told Antony we should leave, but he told me, “We have to stay no matter what now. We spent too much money to just show up and dip.” While this was true and I was tempted to run out of the room, I was willing to sacrifice my time, not my money, and stayed. Even so, I was crushed deep down, because so far this wasn't the experience I had dreamed of. 

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I pushed through the whole night and tried to have the most fun I could. I took pictures with friends, danced to very questionable songs, and just stood all night until the clock hit 10:30 pm. That's when the prom court was introduced, and all our attention shifted towards them. People cheered on who they thought was going to win, and then the drum roll sound followed. The winners were announced and the whole room went quiet. The energy in the room shifted completely and people expressed their disappointment by booing the king and queen. Discouraged, the majority of people left prom, including Antony and I. That's when a close friend of ours, Garrett, approached us upon leaving. He asked us if he could tag along and we told him he could join us, but we had no idea what we were going to do next. The only thing we knew for sure though, was that we were in the mood to do something fun, possibly even risky. We wanted to take advantage of the fact that our parents weren’t expecting us until much later, and thought about all the stuff we could do in the meantime. Garrett suggested going to Walmart, but we remembered it was no longer open 24 hours. Eventually, Antony suggested going to a park, but we didn't know which one. That's when I remembered that not too long ago I attended a party at Robert L. Bridges Park in Statham, and mentioned it. 

Author: Jack CameraMan

  I warned them that the park was known for being where all the homeless people were, being almost abandoned, and overall rusty everywhere, including the playground. Despite this, they just seemed even more excited. It seemed as if all the negatives I listed turned into positives right as I said them. While I was trying to discourage them from going, I spooked myself and started overthinking. In contrast to me though, Garrett and Antony were both thrilled and ready to go. That's when I was reminded that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and let the adrenaline take over. “Are you ready to go?” “Yes!” On the drive there I couldn’t believe I actually agreed to go. Once we arrived, we checked to see if the gates were closed, but they weren't. Antony said, "It's not trespassing if the gates are wide open." We continued driving slowly, scouting all our surroundings, and quickly noticed the event building to our right had cameras. We weren’t going to let the cameras get in our way though, and without hesitation, Antony turned off his car headlights to avoid attention. Despite the danger of getting caught we kept driving. I was a bit anxious because the road ahead was so dark, but it was better than having the police called on us. Apart from the cameras, another big fear we had was being caught by a police officer patrolling the park. To not get caught, just in case this did happen, we hid the car in a dirt path. 

Author: Lomrjyo

Immediately after parking, we got out and laughed. Our mission was successful, it felt like us against the world now. It felt great to just feel relaxed and at ease with my life. It started to seem that maybe my night would finally get more interesting, and I would get my good ending. As we looked up at the moonless sky, on top of Antony's car, we listened to some music on our phones and started reflecting on our night. “The music was absolute garbage,” we all said in agreement. “Who knew Gibson would’ve won prom king lol.” “I thought Ashley was going to win queen, not Shawna.” As much as I wanted that night to last, because we were bonding in ways I hadn’t experienced before, we knew this night would eventually come to an end. While we were waiting for a sign to go home, my mother called me. "It's pretty late outside, have you checked the time?" she said. "We just got our food from Waffle House. It's packed because everyone from prom is here, don't worry about me. You can go to bed." I responded back. After my mother hung up, Antony’s dad called, and then Garrett's mom followed. After they used the same excuse and hung up, we mutually knew this was our cue to wrap up our conversations and start heading home.

Before leaving, we decided to just enjoy each other’s presence while we still could, through silence. At least this is what we originally thought was going to happen. However, we started to become paranoid of every little sound we heard around us that we ignored before. As every minute of silence passed the sounds grew louder. There was this sound in particular that sent an eerie feeling down my spine. I was unsure of what it could have been, but one thing I knew for sure was that I wanted out of there. Garrett, Antony, and I started looking at the woods, each other, and then the car repeatedly. I put my fingers up and counted to three. On three, we jumped down from the car and locked the doors immediately upon entering. We had a one-way standoff with whatever made the noise in the woods and then eventually turned the car on. The car sounded 100 times louder than usual and I told Antony to "shut up" as if he had any influence over the sound his car made. My anxiety was skyrocketing and the only thing on my mind was that I wanted to leave the park as soon as possible. 

As we began to leave the trail of where we hid the car, to try and avoid the cameras, Antony once again didn't turn on his headlights. After only about 5 seconds of driving in the dark, we heard another sound. The car shook. Antony paused and we froze once again. “What happened?” we asked him. He got out of the car, walked towards the front, said “fuck” and came back inside to turn his headlights on. Right as he did this we realized what the problem was, we were stuck in a ditch. From inside the car I looked at Garrett and told him that there was no possible way that this could have happened. I was in shock and just lost for words. I couldn’t believe that we were now stuck. For the first few minutes, we did not freak out. After all, it was only an hour past midnight, there were 3 of us and we could definitely push the car out. Antony then called out to Garrett to see the damage. That’s when I knew maybe this was going to be a bigger problem. 

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While they paced around the car I started to overthink. I thought about how I should’ve made the right decision and gone straight home after prom. I was disappointed in myself and thought this was karma for lying to my parents and being somewhere I was not supposed to be. Garrett then snapped me out of it and told me to get out of the car and check it out myself. After seeing the damage first-hand I started to freak out. “You have got to be kidding me!” I had hoped this problem would be fixed quickly before, but that hope quickly dwindled. The bumper of the car was stuck on a metal corrugated drainage pipe and any wrong movement would cause the bumper to just pop off. The right wheel was also about a foot in the air and the middle of the car was practically on the ground. We hid our fear of getting in trouble by just laughing nonstop. “It’ll be okay, let’s just stop and think about how to get the car out.” I responded sarcastically saying, “Oh yeah! Definitely! The car's wheels are just floating in midair. No problemo!” 

We were scared about what to do next and just decided to call a couple of friends to see if anyone was willing to help us drag the car out. No one was available though. After all, it was prom and everyone was still out partying. Our last hope was my best friend's boyfriend, Brian. We just hoped he wasn't asleep already. Antony called and explained the whole situation to him, and Brian said he was unsure if his parents would let him leave the house. However, he told us he would ask and do his best to try and convince them. Still on edge about everything, we sat inside and just waited for his call. That's when we heard the well-awaited iPhone ringtone on Antony's phone. Antony picked up and put the phone on speaker. “Please tell me it's good news.” Brian just answered, “I'm on my way.” We cheered in excitement. While we were waiting for him to arrive, we decided we were going to try and get the car out ourselves. We tried the push from behind method and failed. We tried the drive in reverse method but that just made Antony's wheels sink deeper and deeper into the dirt. After failing we decided to just give up and wait for Brian to come. When he got to the park we informed him about the cameras and he turned off his headlights. As his black car, which blended into the night sky, approached us, we began to have just a tiny bit of hope. He got out, saw our situation, and brainstormed ideas of how we could get the car out. “When you said it was bad I didn't think you actually meant this bad.” 

After a few minutes of examining the car, he came up with an idea that focused on physics. He told us to collect sticks from the woods and place them under the floating front tire. This would create enough traction between the wheel and sticks to hopefully get the car out. “One. Two. Three!” Garrett, Antony, and I pushed the car from the front while Brian reversed. We were quickly put to a halt though when the front wheels started smoking up and the smell of burnt rubber filled the air. We looked at each other in disappointment. “Let's just call it a night.”

Author: Roger Miller

All four of us got into the car and just sighed. It was silent. I buried my head into my arms and just wanted to disappear. On the way back home I was preparing myself for what my parents might say and all the lies that I would have to come up with. Right as Brian's car hit my driveway my body went cold, I was scared. Were my parents waiting for me? Were they asleep? Were they upset? After all, it was 3 am and I wasn’t expecting a warm welcome. I opened the car door and started walking up my gravel driveway. The sound of my heels hitting the rocks made me even more nervous. Right as I reached my porch steps I tried to make no sound. I saw that the lights were off and was hoping everyone was asleep. My hands were shaking as I inserted my keys and I unlocked the pad on our door. I opened the door softly and saw that everyone was asleep. I wanted to jump in excitement. I ran as fast as I could to my room and screamed into my pillow.

Feelings of euphoria hit my body and I just laid in my bed. I then closed my eyes, and just thought about everything that had occurred; Starting from my anxiety spike from going to prom, arriving and being disappointed, the strange noise in the woods, lying to my parents, and in the end, falling into a ditch. I had fun, yes. Was it worth risking my safety though? Nevertheless, I was the happiest I could have ever been, and although my night was not the perfect prom experience, it was still memorable. My parents would now never find out what time I arrived home, and what happened to us.